John Hampton – RIP

La triste notizia arriva dal The Commercial Appeal di Memphis. “Grammy-award winning engineer and hit-making producer John Hampton has died at the age of 61. Mr. Hampton, affiliated with Memphis’ Ardent Studios for four decades, had an illustrious career working with top artists including the White Stripes, Replacements, Gin Blossoms, Stevie Ray and Jimmie Vaughn, and Travis Tritt. He died Friday night from complications of cancer”. Inizia la carriera nel 1977 agli Ardent Studios, negli anni seguenti i suoi lavori spaziano dal punk al country, dal rock al pop, cura il secondo album-break dei dimenticati Gin Blossoms, vince due Grammy Awards per il lavoro con mister Jack White (White Stripes nel 2006 e The Raconteurs nel 2007). John Fry proprietario degli studi di Memphis racconta: “Part of his gift was his flexibility. He could go from working on a country record to a rock record to a blues record. He loved all kinds of music and was very knowledgeable commercially and artistically with each genre. The greatest testament to John is that he had such a long-term track record of success. So often in our industry that’s not the case”.